The outstanding feature of Zion National Park is Zion Canyon, the
stupendous red and white gorge cut by the Mukuntuweap River from the
Kolob Plateau through more than 3,000 feet of the Jurassic sandstones of
the White and Vermilion cliffs and down into lower beds of mauve
sandstone and shales of purple and red. The floor of Zion is 4,100 feet
above sea level; the dome of the West Temple rises to 7,650 feet. The
canyon is about fourteen miles long and varies in width from about a
mile at Springdale to scarcely more than the reach of a man’s
outstretched hands in the upper Narrows where the river has cut a
channel under the towering cliffs. Imagine, if you can, the overwhelming
effect of these painted precipices, nearly 2,000 feet high and both
close enough to be touched without moving.
[Illustration: _The Temples of Zion_]
In places the canyon widens into courts and shrines of bewitching
beauty, such as the Court of the Patriarchs and the Temple of Sinawava.
From the vermilion walls have been chiseled individual buttes and peaks
of monstrous greatness and surpassing majesty, among them Angels
Landing, the Great White Throne and the Mountain of Mystery. And these
soaring scarps and summits present such varied tints and hues of red
that the expert in pigments is bewildered; from the delicate pink of a
baby’s cheek to deepest carmine, and beyond--from bittersweet and orient
pink through orange chrome, flame-scarlet, vermilion, jasper, Pompeiian
red and Indian lake to mahogany, ox-blood, maroon and a red that is
almost black. In places the walls are topped with creamy white and the
green of pines. Everywhere they exhibit a wizardry of massive sculpture.
The deep-set river is bordered with the verdure of cottonwoods,
box-elders, pines, ferns and flowering shrubs; in mossy caves curtained
by little waterfalls, deer cradle their fawns. The radiance of the
morning and evening sun upon the tinted towers of Zion is among the
finest of its spectacles.
Standing upon the edge of the Park near Springdale is The Watchman, a
stately cathedral-like pile of red sandstone. About a mile beyond is
Bridge Mountain upon whose upper slope may be discerned a great bow of
stone, a natural bridge with a span of 100 feet. Among the Towers of the
Virgin stands the Altar of Sacrifice, a buttressed white fane whose
summit and wall are stained deep with flowing crimson, suggesting the
bloody sacrificial place of some insatiable pagan god. The East Temple,
on the right, is a splendid structure of pink and white surmounted by a
carmine capstone.
On the left is the Streaked Wall bearing strange white cones, and beyond
it is Sentinel Peak. The west wall then recedes to form the fine Court
of the Patriarchs whence rise the three stately Patriarchs themselves,
jagged pink and white pyramids. Above the east wall stand the Twin
Brothers and the Mountain-of-the-Sun, the latter the first to glow in
the light of dawn, the last to hold the evening rays. Lady Mountain, Mt.
Majestic and Red Arch Mountain next appear, and Angels Landing, a
sharp-shorn, pyramidal wedge of Pompeiian red that projects boldly into
the canyon and throws off from its foot a fluted ox-blood mass called
the Great Organ. Round this the river winds in a serpentine semicircle.
[Illustration: _On the West Rim, Zion National Park_]